In other words, sometimes when you point out false teaching and false teachers you will appear rude and loveless. Worse, sometimes you will BE rude and loveless. That is a sin. But it is still necessary to point out and rebuke false doctrine even though sometimes you do it and are a jerk. If you don’t point it out, but you tolerate it, you don’t love the Christians you’re supposed to serve (either as a pastor or a fellow hearer of the word.) If you say nothing about false doctrine and tolerate it you also tolerate the profanation of God’s Holy Name. You participate in it. So we have to learn the hard way of speaking the truth in love, of not allowing personal anger to cloud our judgment or interfere with service to others or to cause us to scandalize people we are trying to help. On the other hand we can’t continue in the common sin of our time, which is not to speak, even when love demands it, because we don’t want to appear judgmental or butt in someone else’s business.

The entire Scriptures are in reality nothing else than an elaboration of God’s name (“ein ausgebreiteter Name Gottes”). By denying that Scripture is God’s Word, men reject the only principle or source from which they can derive an understanding of God’s name. This fact prompted Luther to remind us again and again that only the true Scripture doctrine honors God’s name and builds his Church, while false doctrine, springing from the heart of men, profanes God’s name and destroys His Church. In his commentary on Ex. 20:7 Luther says of the Second Commandment: “In this Commandment the name of God is used correctly when the Word of God is rightly preached and rightly believed. And, again, God’s name is blasphemed when preachers under the cloak of God’s Word and name mislead the people.” (St. L. III: 1074.) For this reason faithful…